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The Weekly Watch

Dreams and Nightmares

U.S. actions are a nightmare. Imprisoning Chelsea because she refuses to testify against Julian (who they have incarcerated and are torturing in the UK's Guantanamo like prison). Truth tellers must be stopped! Venezuela's U.S. puppet and pretend president must deliver all of that oil to our corporations and those of our vassal states. We ignore international law, yet again, and raid their embassy in DC. Israel and Saudi Arabia push us into a war with Iran....a guaranteed disaster in waiting. More children murdered this week in Yemen with U.S. assistance and bombs. More Palestinians murdered by Israelis as they protest their open air prison. We are a shameful nation bent on death and destruction for the profit of those who have more than they can possibly use. Killing one another isn't enough...the entire ecosystem is at risk to satiate our oil (and profit) addiction. It is a nightmare.

And yet, people still dream of a better future... and create new systems... and build new structures in harmony with the biosphere. People dream of a more equitable society and are discussing what a positive future might look like. Young people continue to pressure the politicians and elite to move toward a green future. Can they create a dream within the nightmares?

Who do we think we are? Truly. The latest reports that the Trump administration is considering plans for deploying 120,000 troops to the Middle East – presumably to strike Iran – demonstrates how Washington’s foreign policy has finally gone off the rails....
The United States is preparing for an aggressive, illegal, and unwarranted war against another sovereign power thousands of miles from its shores. Again! All true citizens should be beyond appalled and screaming dissent from the rooftops.

Now Who is the Threat?

But actually, this map vastly understates the case. It shows only a few of the estimated 450 US military bases and outposts in Afghanistan, e.g. And it does not show drone bases, of which the US has 60 around the world.

Iran has 150 billion barrels in petroleum reserves, among the largest reserves in the world, but they cannot be exploited by US corporations because of Israel lobby-inspired US congressional sanctions on Iran. US elites, especially Big Oil, dream of doing regime change in Iran so as to get access to those vast reserves. Likely the most important US objection to the Iranian civilian nuclear enrichment program is that it could give Iran “nuclear latency,” the ability to construct a bomb quickly if it seemed to Tehran that the US planned to attack. That is, the real objection in Washington to Iranian nuclear know-how is that it makes Iraq-style regime change impossible and so puts Iranian petroleum out of reach of Houston for the foreseeable future. This consideration is likely the real reason that Washington does not, so to speak, go ballistic about North Korea and Pakistan having actual nuclear warheads, but like to has a fainting spell at the very idea of Iran enriching uranium to 3.5 percent (a bomb takes 95%). North Korea and Pakistan don’t have oil.

Trump bragged on Twitter that “Iran can have no idea what is actually going on.” Later in the day, he was talking to real estate agents and said it was “probably a good thing” that Iran has no understanding of his policy toward them.
This all seems to verify Iran’s official position that the US is not approaching them in an honest manner. Administration offers of talks and threats of war are all built around a deliberate policy of making sure Iran, and for that matter the American public, have no idea what the president’s real intentions are.

On Saturday, Iraq will be voting on a bill that would aim to expel all foreign troops from Iraqi soil, and singles out US troops in particular as needing to leave. The bill is endorsed by Iraq’s top two Shi’ite blocs, and is expected to pass fairly easily.....
So while the Iraqi Prime Minister is warning the US that they can’t use Iraq to launch a war on Iran, the US is browbeating Iraq over its government-aligned Shi’ite militias, and doing everything they can to try to portray that Shi’ite-dominated Iraqi government as effectively in league with the Iranians, and subsequently a threat to US interests. No matter what happens, it seems certain US-Iraqi ties will suffer for it.

The Arab News, a major English-language Saudi Arabian newspaper owned by Saudi Prince Turki bin Salman (brother of crown prince Mohamed bin Salman) has long been treated as virtually an official government mouthpiece. This is becoming particularly important Thursday, as the front page of the paper advocated that the United States attack Iran.

The U.S. has taken so many measures just in the last year or two to move towards a war with Iran, starting with pulling out of the nuclear deal, designating the Iran Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization, trying to get the Iranian oil exports down to zero, creating chaos in the Iranian economy. And of course, Iran is going to prepare itself for what looks like an attack. And this also can be put on John Bolton, who has been calling for an attack on Iran since before he ever got into the administration.

I think this is a time where we have to build up an antiwar movement again. We are seeing a repeat of what happened in Iraq with lies, misinterpretations not only being put out by this administration, but being echoed by the mainstream media, including The New York Times. MEDEA BENJAMIN

...it is clear John Bolton wrote an op-ed at New York Times calling for attacking Iran, bombing Iran as the only option, as he said. He was allied with the terrorist group of Iranian terrorist group MEK. He gave lecture. He invited them to rule Iran. He called for regime change. Therefore, everyone knows what is the strategy and the mindset and the plan of Ambassador John Bolton.

Second, the fact is that the Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu for many years has been pushing the U.S. to attack Iran. He has huge influence at White House. You remember when President Trump withdrew from Iran nuclear deal. Some days later, Bibi Netanyahu said, “I asked him to leave the JCPOA.” The Iranian nuclear deal. “It was me who made him to depart from the deal.” After President Trump designated Iranian army as a terrorist group, again, Bibi Netanyahu publicly said, “It was me who asked President Trump to designate Iranian army as a terrorist group.”

...and a military industrial complex gone cancerous.
If all the hidden parts are added together, the true military budget would be close to $1.25 trillion, says William Hartung of the Center for International Policy...

The Pentagon’s own Defense Business Board did a study a couple of years ago that said that they could save $25 billion a year if they just got rid of excessive bureaucracy, people doing the same jobs, that sort of thing. Then, related to that, the Pentagon hires 600,000 private contractors, almost as many as they hire civilian employees inside the government. If you got rid of 100,000 of those, you had only half a million, you’d save $20 billion a year. Then there’s things like spending $8,000 on a helicopter part that’s worth $500 and there’s been a big scandal just this week, a company named TransDigm with huge overcharges on spare parts, that has gotten some attention in Congress and the press. Those are the kinds of things and, of course, cost overruns— the F-35 fighter plane being the biggest example. It’s going to cost $1.4 trillion over its lifetime and a lot of that is much higher than what they originally said, both for the procurement of it and also for operating it.

The United States government and the Venezuelan oligarchy first tried to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution in 2002. Great hope in Chávez prevented a discredited oligarchy from victory. Oil revenues then allowed Chávez to build up pillars of support for the revolution. But the depletion of the oil prices from 2009 threatened the Bolivarian process.

The attorney representing the Embassy Protection Activists who were arrested yesterday by US federal police has said the invasion of the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC is an outrageous violation of the Vienna convention on diplomatic practice.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoD7O9nx7IA (1 min)

This article examines the backgrounds of the individuals, the platforms they use to disseminate their message, and the tactics they have employed to clamor for an embassy seizure that violates international law. It also addresses how they may stand to benefit directly from an escalation of Washington’s hybrid war and a potential regime-change scenario in Venezuela.https://thegrayzone.com/2019/05/16/guaido-mob-venezuelan-embassy/

Chelsea and Julian...heroes of our time.
“Based on my refusal to answer questions two months ago the grand jury is trying to compel me to testify,” Manning told reporters. "They sent me into confinement, so I got released last week. And here I am today with the same subpoena, or a different subpoena with the same questions. Ultimately this is an attempt to place me back in confinement,” Manning said.

“The American government relies on the informed consent of the governed, and the free press is the vigorous mechanism to keep us informed. It is a point of pride for this administration to be publicly hostile to the press,” she added. “It is up to the press to stand up for themselves, to stand up for the practice of journalism, and to stand up for Chelsea in the same manner she has consistently stood up for the press.”https://www.truthdig.com/articles/chelsea-manning-to-return-to-jail-in-u...

So refuse to testify and it's off to jail and you must pay $1000/day for the privilege. What a just equitable society.

Following his expulsion from the Ecuadorean Embassy and subsequent arrest by British police, Julian Assange faced multiple court hearings, resulting in him being sentenced to 50 weeks in the super-max Belmarsh Prison and facing the prospect of extradition to the US.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QzUzjMmRLk (8 min)

We’ve focussed on lies the social media, but not those in the mainstream media. I want to point out the brazen hypocrisy of World Press Freedom day being hosted by the UK government at this dark time. Julian Assange is being persecuted by war criminals and the corrupt that he exposed are still sitting in positions of power in the government on both sides of the aisle, as well as within much of the media, Imaging the precedent that Trump is setting, that any country can extradite a foreign journalist or publisher and make them subject to draconian laws, possibly the death penalty, just because they published truth about that government’s war crimes. Imagine if that state is Saudi Arabia.

This is the defining issue of this generation - #FreeAssange
Patrick Henningsen is an independent analyst, public speaker and founder and managing editor of the successful independent news and media analysis website 21st Century Wire.comhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYZPkjO1jtY (9 min)

It was the film "Collateral Murder" (embedded in the link) that began the targeting of Julian. “The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.”https://consortiumnews.com/2019/04/23/new-cn-series-the-revelations-of-w...

Three months after it published the “Collateral Murder” video, WikiLeaks on July 25, 2010 released a cache of secret U.S. documents on the war in Afghanistan. It revealed the suppression of civilian casualty figures, the existence of an elite U.S.-led death squad and the covert role of Pakistan in the conflict, among other revelations. The publication of the Afghan War Diaries helped set the U.S. government on a collision course with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that ultimately led to his arrest last month.https://consortiumnews.com/2019/05/09/the-revelations-of-wikileaks-no-2-...

I now realize how little we can do in our democracy. If you look at what has happened to high-profile whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, and an important publisher like Assange, who had the courage to publish these important revelations, what did your democracy do to save them, to treat them in a human way? Chelsea Manning was put in prison for seven years, where she tried to commit suicide twice. Now she is back in prison. Edward Snowden was forced to leave the U.S. Julian Assange has spent nine years in detainment and no one did anything. We were reporting, we were denouncing, we were exposing how seriously his health was declining. Nothing happened. - Stefania Maurizi

Around a million species—perhaps an eighth of all plant and animal species on Earth—are in danger of going extinct, many within a matter of decades, according the report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APKkpw2070A (3 min)

Dreams of a just society...
Most people know capitalism is unjust. Jacobin founder Bhaskar Sunkara says he wrote The Socialist Manifesto to lay out an alternative. In part 2, Bhaskar Sunkara explains what socialism could actually look like in the United States.https://therealnews.com/series/why-socialism

Dreams of a sustainable ecosystem
Climate action is our number one priority in European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL). We do not see it as a stand-alone struggle; it includes struggles for decent jobs, high living standards and gender and racial equality. We oppose policies that subordinate essential natural resources of life and common goods, like water, energy, air, a clean environment and health, to the forces of profit-seeking. We fight against capitalism, neoliberal policies and corporate capture.https://therealnews.com/climate-emergency-manifesto

Nearly every country in the world except the United States took a historic step to curb plastic waste last week, when more than 180 nations agreed to add plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that regulates the movement of hazardous materials between countries. The U.S. is one of just two countries that has not ratified the 30 year-old treaty. During negotiations last week in Geneva, the Environmental Protection Agency and State Department joined the plastics industry in trying to thwart the landmark, legally-binding agreement.https://www.democracynow.org/2019/5/16/the_world_just_took_a_major

This inspiring off-grid homesteading family lives in a renovated stone earthship. They grow their own food, collect rainwater, use solar power, have composting toilets, and they have a pond that filters their grey water. On top of living an eco friendly lifestyle, they dedicate their work to important projects like urban gardening and promoting industrial hemp as "Hempbassadors."https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9jRYHpeAk0 (14 min)

Regenerative agriculture is an ecological approach to agriculture that enables natural systems & functions to not just be renewed, but also to do the renewing: to self-organise back to healthy function, a radical idea of empowering and not controlling nature. In this talk, Charlie Massy OA draws on his decades of farming experience and research to propose new ways of farming that don't harm the land and the planet in the way industrial agricultural practices can.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Et8YKBivhaE (18 min)

I've posted this before, but if you missed it ....
Unbroken Grounds explains the critical role food will play in the next frontier of our efforts to solve the environmental crisis. It explores four areas of agriculture that aim to change our relationship to the land and oceans. Most of our food is produced using methods that reduce biodiversity, decimate soil and contribute to climate change. We believe our food can and should be a part of the solution to the environmental crisis – grown, harvested and produced in ways that restore our land, water and wildlife. The film tells the story of four groups that are pioneers in the fields of regenerative agriculture, regenerative grazing, diversified crop development and restorative fishing.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ezkp7Cteys (26 min)

We can Dream of a better world...

Holding on to your dream while being aware of our national nightmare(s) isn't easy. The horrors of our country's actions can be paralyzing. Alabama is a political nightmare. Largely owned and operated by the Koch brothers forest empire. ALEC creates the legislation that our purchased legislators promote. It isn't just the dark ages abortion law that passed this week, but school privatization, privatized prisons full of mainly people of color that cost more than our schools, environmental destruction and chemical farming, and a state constitution created for and by aristocrats. And yet this state is the most biologically and geologically diverse with more miles of navigable rivers than any other (except maybe California). There are more species of trees on 80 mile long Lookout Mountain than the entire continent of Europe. Dreams and nightmares intricately entwined.

I watch the change politically and in our natural system. The woods thrush used to fill our morning sounds. Whippoorwill chimed in during the evenings. But coyotes came in and began preying on these ground nesting species. They have become rarities. The nature of nature is change. Bears have become more common here too. Animals, plants, fellow humans, all show us the nature of ourselves and communities.

Comments

As I read through the WW, I realize how small I am in this world. But small doesn’t mean insignificant. I can make a difference. And I want to.

I think too many people are caught up in the rat race of American life. As many of us are aware, this is intentional so as not to have the populace paying attention. Or making a difference.

In my small way, I spread the word, share the WW, and believe our world will get better. But I see that later rather than sooner. The evil components that make up our rat race will take time to overcome. It will take more pain for people to awaken. What happened in Alabama should be a wake up call for women. Let’s see if it is. If it isn’t, it might have to come from the SCOTUS decision that will inevitably happen.

Keep up the hope. It’s the only survival mechanism in these challenging times.

Have a peaceful Sunday, everyone!

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"The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new." Socrates (469-399 BC)

I'd rather live by the side of the road
And try to point souls to the blest abode
Than to be a king or millionaire
And live in mansions and bright array
I'd rather do my neighborly deed
Or help some traveler or a friend in need
I'd rather live by the side of the road
And help some pilgrim along life's wayhttps://www.bluegrassnet.com/lyrics/by-the-side-of-the-road#.XOF3Ndh7mUk

As I read through the WW, I realize how small I am in this world. But small doesn’t mean insignificant. I can make a difference. And I want to.

I think too many people are caught up in the rat race of American life. As many of us are aware, this is intentional so as not to have the populace paying attention. Or making a difference.

In my small way, I spread the word, share the WW, and believe our world will get better. But I see that later rather than sooner. The evil components that make up our rat race will take time to overcome. It will take more pain for people to awaken. What happened in Alabama should be a wake up call for women. Let’s see if it is. If it isn’t, it might have to come from the SCOTUS decision that will inevitably happen.

Keep up the hope. It’s the only survival mechanism in these challenging times.

Have a peaceful Sunday, everyone!

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

because the real world kept sticking its big fat nose in my business. At least it's done now, and I'm back to doing what I like. Recently got my new Oregon ID card, and I look like a Sons of Anarchy character. Which is appropriate, because I was just looking around my Dojo and thinking "Yup, judging by the facial hair, we're totally the bad guys in any Hollywood movie..."

So close to being done on my forge. Honestly the only thing I'm worried about is my burners melting. Gonna have to rig up away to extend the length a bit, since they're propane campfire burners... (I used to cast lead soldiers, no I didn't use actual lead, but still, I remember those burners being effective. However, I wasn't concentrating the heat then, so I need to check before I do any sustained burns and do some trial and error.

The world's going crazy, So therefore, the logical thing to be sane is to do the opposite of what the world says to do.

...and sounds like you're moving forward on your metalworking project and your Judo activities. If not a dream, perhaps a goal.

Hope the kids are wrapping up the school year without much stress or tension. The end of the year was always hell for me. Exams, grades, permanent records to update, ....and the FL folk Fest on Memorial weekend - a 7 hour drive, four nights of sleep deprivation to play music, and the drive back home...and having paperwork awaiting. Life is easier now.

Hope yours eases well into summer!
(5 min metal art project)

because the real world kept sticking its big fat nose in my business. At least it's done now, and I'm back to doing what I like. Recently got my new Oregon ID card, and I look like a Sons of Anarchy character. Which is appropriate, because I was just looking around my Dojo and thinking "Yup, judging by the facial hair, we're totally the bad guys in any Hollywood movie..."

So close to being done on my forge. Honestly the only thing I'm worried about is my burners melting. Gonna have to rig up away to extend the length a bit, since they're propane campfire burners... (I used to cast lead soldiers, no I didn't use actual lead, but still, I remember those burners being effective. However, I wasn't concentrating the heat then, so I need to check before I do any sustained burns and do some trial and error.

The world's going crazy, So therefore, the logical thing to be sane is to do the opposite of what the world says to do.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Five states have enacted laws criminalizing pipeline protests, and seven others are considering similar measures.

Common Dreams also published a piece on Friday discussing the situation in Texas, where legislators are mulling legislation, Texas State Bill Would Make Protesting Pipelines a Felony on Par With Attempted Murder:

“Texas aims to make pipeline protest a third-degree felony, same as attempted murder,” climate activist Bill McKibben tweeted on Friday.

Javid bids to crack down on climate protesters with greater police powers

Javid bids to crack down on climate protesters with greater police powers as he prepares bid for Tory leadership

The Home Secretary has asked his aides to draw up changes to public order laws
Sajid Javid is expected to use the move as the start of his bid for party leadership
The Home Secretary expected to set out his determination to tackle extremism

...at least in the US. I admired the way the UK police handled the XR protests. No wonder they want to hire mercenaries to increase the violence. In my mind I contrasted it with Standing Rock. Having lived through the Birmingham movement and the severe violence of those times left me with a sense that the protest could accomplish something. (as did the anti Vietnam war movement) In retrospect it was very incremental change.

The first nations have long told us about our need to relate to our planet, but we don't listen.

On we go. Keep on doing. Honestly talk with young folks about approaches they might consider for survival. When you plant a tree you have to look into the future and see it as an mature plant. Facing our future with open eyes and trusting our ability to adapt.

Here's an interesting low tech approach...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6xR3T37gI (24 min)
Mike Oehler lived for over 30 years in an underground home that he built for $50 (and expanded for $500) on his land in Northern Idaho near the Canadian border. Now in his seventies his arthritis keeps him from hiking up to his home, but he continues to “write and proselytize” In 1968 like thousands of other San Franciscans hoping to go “back to the land”, Oehler bought property and began to build a homestead. After spending a winter freezing in a small cabin, he designed a home that would use the earth as insulation. With his first attempt he fell into the easy errors of what he calls a “first thought house”: a hole cut into a hillside with south-facing windows. Gradually he began to innovate with subterranean design, creating better ways for letting light in: among them “the Hollywood Wing”, “the Royer foyer”, gables and most-importantly the “uphill patio” (which also provides space for an earth-sheltered greenhouse). He also created an inexpensive, low-tech approach to basic design with what he calls PSP or Post/shoring/polyethlene. Mike Oehler's "$50 & Up Underground House Book": http://www.undergroundhousing.com/

Rained like the tropics here with thunder and lightening this morning. Unusual. The new unusual.

So we need a new anti-war movement. But these two articles caught my attention.

After Standing Rock, Protesting Pipelines Can Get You a Decade in Prison and $100K in Fines (also at Common Dreams)

Five states have enacted laws criminalizing pipeline protests, and seven others are considering similar measures.

Common Dreams also published a piece on Friday discussing the situation in Texas, where legislators are mulling legislation, Texas State Bill Would Make Protesting Pipelines a Felony on Par With Attempted Murder:

“Texas aims to make pipeline protest a third-degree felony, same as attempted murder,” climate activist Bill McKibben tweeted on Friday.

Javid bids to crack down on climate protesters with greater police powers

Javid bids to crack down on climate protesters with greater police powers as he prepares bid for Tory leadership

The Home Secretary has asked his aides to draw up changes to public order laws
Sajid Javid is expected to use the move as the start of his bid for party leadership
The Home Secretary expected to set out his determination to tackle extremism

...at least in the US. I admired the way the UK police handled the XR protests. No wonder they want to hire mercenaries to increase the violence. In my mind I contrasted it with Standing Rock. Having lived through the Birmingham movement and the severe violence of those times left me with a sense that the protest could accomplish something. (as did the anti Vietnam war movement) In retrospect it was very incremental change.

The first nations have long told us about our need to relate to our planet, but we don't listen.

On we go. Keep on doing. Honestly talk with young folks about approaches they might consider for survival. When you plant a tree you have to look into the future and see it as an mature plant. Facing our future with open eyes and trusting our ability to adapt.

Here's an interesting low tech approach...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B6xR3T37gI (24 min)
Mike Oehler lived for over 30 years in an underground home that he built for $50 (and expanded for $500) on his land in Northern Idaho near the Canadian border. Now in his seventies his arthritis keeps him from hiking up to his home, but he continues to “write and proselytize” In 1968 like thousands of other San Franciscans hoping to go “back to the land”, Oehler bought property and began to build a homestead. After spending a winter freezing in a small cabin, he designed a home that would use the earth as insulation. With his first attempt he fell into the easy errors of what he calls a “first thought house”: a hole cut into a hillside with south-facing windows. Gradually he began to innovate with subterranean design, creating better ways for letting light in: among them “the Hollywood Wing”, “the Royer foyer”, gables and most-importantly the “uphill patio” (which also provides space for an earth-sheltered greenhouse). He also created an inexpensive, low-tech approach to basic design with what he calls PSP or Post/shoring/polyethlene. Mike Oehler's "$50 & Up Underground House Book": http://www.undergroundhousing.com/

your Weekly Watch always results in giving me hope. I am back dreaming and decided to be blind to everything that keeps me looking at the nightmares. Why would I be so stupid to let them get at me, heh?

If only ONE European major politician would talk like Tulsi. Then we could move something together.

I don't know why, but my mind and body tells me, I should not worry and that the unforeseen and unintended consequences will always win over the nightmares and start something fresh and new.

...perhaps less so now that he vies for PM. However, you might consider Brexit as a European divorce and Jeremy as non European?

The changes will come upon us and we will have to adapt. Putting the headlights on bright, coastal folks should look inland toward good water and high ground.

I still envy your German trains, infrastructure, public health system, schools, and labor reps on corporate boards. I watch DW news most evenings on PBS and find it as misleading as US MSM (or UK for that matter).

Better enjoy our pleasures while we have them. Look toward the dream.

your Weekly Watch always results in giving me hope. I am back dreaming and decided to be blind to everything that keeps me looking at the nightmares. Why would I be so stupid to let them get at me, heh?

If only ONE European major politician would talk like Tulsi. Then we could move something together.

I don't know why, but my mind and body tells me, I should not worry and that the unforeseen and unintended consequences will always win over the nightmares and start something fresh and new.

We shall overcome. Thanks for all your weekly work.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Lookout
queen and the so-called divorce unreal. But that is just my unsubstantiated gut feeling. The British have to eat too like the rest of us, so we will stay together and connected.

DW is German's propaganda outlet for its overseas allies. So no wonder you feel that way.

I like that you like German street atmosphere etc. To me it's too crowded. I avoid it and I would not live in cities anymore. But at least it is good to hear you haven't given up on some nicer aspects of my German surroundings.

Be well and thanks again for your work. Let's have a meet-up in Europe.

...perhaps less so now that he vies for PM. However, you might consider Brexit as a European divorce and Jeremy as non European?

The changes will come upon us and we will have to adapt. Putting the headlights on bright, coastal folks should look inland toward good water and high ground.

I still envy your German trains, infrastructure, public health system, schools, and labor reps on corporate boards. I watch DW news most evenings on PBS and find it as misleading as US MSM (or UK for that matter).

#5.1
queen and the so-called divorce unreal. But that is just my unsubstantiated gut feeling. The British have to eat too like the rest of us, so we will stay together and connected.

DW is German's propaganda outlet for its overseas allies. So no wonder you feel that way.

I like that you like German street atmosphere etc. To me it's too crowded. I avoid it and I would not live in cities anymore. But at least it is good to hear you haven't given up on some nicer aspects of my German surroundings.

Be well and thanks again for your work. Let's have a meet-up in Europe.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

...but it will be what it will be. So far we've had great weather and a beautiful bloom this spring as summer intrudes. It is time after all.

Stay cool in the highlands! Thanks for the words of wonder.
how about Run Mountain?

J. E. Mainer (July 20, 1898 - June 12, 1971) was an American old time fiddler who followed in the wake of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers. Joseph Emmett Mainer grew up on a farm in the mountains near Weaverville, North Carolina and learned to play the banjo and fiddle from an early age. Since Wade, his brother, also was interested in learning to play the banjo, he left that to Wade and concentrated on the fiddle. Soon, Mainer began performing at local country barn dances. He found work at a textile mill in Knoxville, Tennessee but moved to Concord, North Carolina in 1922 for another work in a mill.

i think the storm Magi's getting is forecast to raise hell as it crosses the states, tornadoes and thunder storms this week.

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0 users have voted.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

...but it will be what it will be. So far we've had great weather and a beautiful bloom this spring as summer intrudes. It is time after all.

Stay cool in the highlands! Thanks for the words of wonder.
how about Run Mountain?

J. E. Mainer (July 20, 1898 - June 12, 1971) was an American old time fiddler who followed in the wake of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers. Joseph Emmett Mainer grew up on a farm in the mountains near Weaverville, North Carolina and learned to play the banjo and fiddle from an early age. Since Wade, his brother, also was interested in learning to play the banjo, he left that to Wade and concentrated on the fiddle. Soon, Mainer began performing at local country barn dances. He found work at a textile mill in Knoxville, Tennessee but moved to Concord, North Carolina in 1922 for another work in a mill.

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"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

You or magiamma may have already included this interview with Wilson, but if not here’s something from it …

Q. You’ve written a lot about the arts and the humanities, most recently in The Origins of Creativity (W.W. Norton, 2017). What draws you to these subjects?

A. Human beings live in a tiny sensory bubble. We are lousy at taste and smell.
If you were to turn your mind off of sound and sight and just pay attention to chemical signals being broadcast all the time, in almost any ecosystem, by thousands of species of organisms, with different substances, different rates of diffusion — if you could visualize that, if you could convert it to what human beings could see — you would have a whole new world sprout up around you.

Having introduced kin selection, Hamilton had, in my view, explained the origin of nepotism. But then he came up with something called "inclusive fitness." He said: Maybe societies as a whole originate when a lot of individuals together are helping one another, or cooperating, to the degree that they are related to them. If they were all closely related, then there would be a lot of individuals cooperating, and you might have the origin of a society — particularly a society based on altruism. I favored that idea and mentioned it as far back as The Insect Societies (Harvard University Press) in 1971.

Inclusive fitness carried the day. But it just wasn’t working. I saw that there were big flaws in it.

The earthship build reminded me of our house raising...a much simpler pole house built over a summer by us and our friends. As the school year and teaching approached I hired a crew for two weeks (that was a lifesaver).

Richard Feynman took pride in his ability to smell. His party trick was to step out of the room, have someone select a book and replace it on the shelf, and he would smell out the volume they had selected.http://www.feynman.com/

You or magiamma may have already included this interview with Wilson, but if not here’s something from it …

Q. You’ve written a lot about the arts and the humanities, most recently in The Origins of Creativity (W.W. Norton, 2017). What draws you to these subjects?

A. Human beings live in a tiny sensory bubble. We are lousy at taste and smell.
If you were to turn your mind off of sound and sight and just pay attention to chemical signals being broadcast all the time, in almost any ecosystem, by thousands of species of organisms, with different substances, different rates of diffusion — if you could visualize that, if you could convert it to what human beings could see — you would have a whole new world sprout up around you.

Having introduced kin selection, Hamilton had, in my view, explained the origin of nepotism. But then he came up with something called "inclusive fitness." He said: Maybe societies as a whole originate when a lot of individuals together are helping one another, or cooperating, to the degree that they are related to them. If they were all closely related, then there would be a lot of individuals cooperating, and you might have the origin of a society — particularly a society based on altruism. I favored that idea and mentioned it as far back as The Insect Societies (Harvard University Press) in 1971.

Inclusive fitness carried the day. But it just wasn’t working. I saw that there were big flaws in it.

The earthship build reminded me of our house raising...a much simpler pole house built over a summer by us and our friends. As the school year and teaching approached I hired a crew for two weeks (that was a lifesaver).

Richard Feynman took pride in his ability to smell. His party trick was to step out of the room, have someone select a book and replace it on the shelf, and he would smell out the volume they had selected.http://www.feynman.com/